Moses Maimonides was the major medieval philosopher of the 12th Century as well as being a Jewish rabbi and the physician to the Grand Vizier Alfadhil and Sultan Saladin of Egypt. He was born in Spain during the golden age of Jewish culture in Cordoba. However when the Almohades, a radical Islamic sect, conquered Cordoba… Read more »
Category: Europe
FRITZ EICHENBERG (1901-1990)
Fritz Eichenberg was born in 1901 in Germany to a assimilated non-religious Jewish family. He studied art and became a wood engraver. He used his art to highlight moral and social convictions, including producing many anti-Hitler cartoons. When the Nazis came to power Eichenberg emigrated to the United States. The tragic death of his wife… Read more »
LANZA DEL VASTO (1901-1981)
Lanza del Vasto was born to a noble family in Italy in 1901. After studying philosophy he journeyed to India in 1936 where he studied under various Hindu holy men. He met Mahatma Gandhi and lived at Gandhi’s ashram long enough to become deeply acquainted with his philosophy of nonviolence and its practice. Gandhi gave… Read more »
JACQUES MARITAIN (1882-1973)
Jacques Maritain was the major Catholic philosopher of the 20th Century. He was born in a Protestant family, but as a student he was an agnostic. He later met and married Raissa Oumensoff, a Jewish émigré from Russia, and together they began an intense spiritual quest. Under the influence of the philosopher Henri Bergson and… Read more »
AARON JEAN-MARIE CARDINAL LUSTIGER (1926-2007)
Aaron Lustiger was born in Paris in 1926 to Jewish parents who had emigrated from Poland. When World War II broke out, the family fled to Orléans. After reading the Christian Bible, the teenage Lustiger felt drawn to the Orléans Cathedral. He decided to convert to Catholicism, with the reluctant consent of his parents, adding… Read more »